Chapter 25 Don't be so selfless

Naruto, Sakura and Lee were walking towards the nearby park, neither of them had said anything when they left. Sakura inwardly hated the tension she was feeling and looked at Naruto with worry. Before they left he seemed very hyper about being able to train with Lee. But now, his blue eyes were fixed on the road ahead, and he appeared somehow tense. Sakura wasn't the only one noticing Naruto's deflated attitude, but neither was expecting Naruto sudden outburst breaking the silence.

"I am sorry."

Lee and Sakura looked at each other in confusion, and then Sakura took it upon herself to ask the shared question, "What are you sorry for? You haven't done anything wrong Naruto."

Naruto then turned and showed the still confused pair his gaze, and Sakura nearly gasped. Naruto's eyes were not as lively as they usually were, and they were almost like a deep dark blue, his face held a sad smile.

"I am sorry for getting all of you into this mess that is what I am saying. I honestly didn't want to see anyone getting in harm's way for my sake over the Kyuubi, Akatsuki, and now this."

Sakura's eyes widened and she began shaking her head in concern of his clearly wrong logic, "Naruto, yo-"

Sakura was silenced when Lee connected his fist in a blur square in Naruto's face, sending Naruto on his feet and collapsing to the ground. Sakura looked at Lee in great confusion and was about to question why he did that, but Lee interrupted harshly.

"Naruto-kun, don't be so selfless!"

Sakura didn't say anything and just listened as Lee continued his scolding, "While not being selfish is a great quality Naruto-kun, there are times where being so selfless is just as bad as being selfish. We are your comrades and friends Naruto-kun, you always are putting your life on the line to help us and never back down on your promises because that is your nindo. Let us for once return the favour!" Lee said firmly. Sakura inwardly winced at the mention of promises, and remembered the promise she was given that day, opening up some old wounds again.

Naruto slowly began standing up, and rubbed the blood that had tickled slightly down his mouth. He then smiled softly while looking at Lee.

"Thank you Fuzzy Brows...but was hitting me really necessary?"

Lee then stood affirm at attention, "I was simply rescuing you from the wrath Sakura-san would have done to you if you didn't snap out of it soon."

Sakura was completely caught off guard with that one and stuttered out while her cheeks began matching her hair colour in embarrassment, "I-I-I wasn't-"

She turned her head away and crossed her arms, although the side of her face still showed her flushed cheeks. Sakura calmed herself down in a moment and said with a pink hue still across her face, "Ok...maybe I would have hit him for being so stupid."

Once the group reached the park, they surveyed the area. The park was surprisingly more like a field than a park. It was closed off by metal wired fences, and had numerous trees that were climbable, but were no taller than the size of a house. In the centre was a vast open field that probably was used for sports games. Along the side lines of the field were numerous benches, probably for spectators to watch the games.

Sakura nodded, "This place does seem quite nice, it really would be best if we didn't destroy the place. You listening to me you...." Sakura turned her head to both of her sides and saw that her two team mates were no longer there.

She then looked in front of her and groaned, 'Those two...'

"What are the restrictions Fuzzy Brows?"

"None Naruto-kun! Let us go all out in our prime time of youth!"

"Yosha lets g-"Before Naruto could finish his sentence, both of them felt the killer intent wave from the other team mate, who was now stomping towards them.

"You both will NOT do such a thing here. Did you not hear what Shikamaru said to us before we left? If you both destroy this park, I will personally destroy you both along with it!" she roared in her demonic voice.

"Y-Yes Sakura-san/chan." both Naruto and Lee staggered in fear.

Naruto quickly recovered, "Would you like to join us Sakura-chan?" he asked.

Sakura shook her head, "If it's ok, I would like to continue reading my book. I will be over there on the bench though making sure you two don't do something stupid...which you probably will do." She pointed at the benches behind her.

A thought quickly passed over her though and she turned back with a grin, "When you're up for it though Naruto, we can practice the toruko rasengan later."

"No worries Sakura-chan!"

Naruto then turned and glared at Lee, "Fuzzy Brows, this will have to be taijutsu and kage bunshin's only, and don't use 'that'." Naruto pointed to Lee's retracted spear in with a slight tremor of fear in his voice.

"I accept your handicap Naruto-kun!" Lee said as he returned the glare.

Sakura sighed as she sat down on the seat and watched both Lee and Naruto begin their spar. She then reached into her weapon pouch and pulled out her book, and before she started reading she payed one last glance at the two, '...Maybe ill join in later, I haven't really trained much the last couple of days with the weights.'

Sakura struggled concentrating on her book though, as what was said before hit her, 'I should tell him...I should apologise.' Sakura lowered her book to watch the blond dodge one of Lee's kicks.

'He has always been nice to me, even when I treated him so badly.' Sakura felt her eye twitch, as she hid her face behind the book to continue her musing.

'But both Ino and Tsunade-sama are telling me not to apologise...why...' Remembering Ino's instructions to her made her think about what it had given her so far.

'I do feel much better being the friend I should have been before to him...but I feel like I am just ignoring what I did..hell I almost have turned a blind eye to it.' Shaking her thoughts off she tried to read her chapter.

Sakura's 'later' turned into within ten minutes after she finished the chapter on identifying metal type poisons. She soon joined in the taijutsu brawl, which soon became to Naruto's displeasure, Lee and Sakura vs. himself. Their spar went for over forty five minutes, until they were satisfied with their training, well two were except...

"I failed in reaching five hundred defeated clones, I will now run around the town on my hands ten times!"

Sakura and Naruto sweat dropped, "Lee-san...how many did you defeat?" Lee started crying in dissatisfaction, although no sniffles were heard.

"Three hundred and eighty five normal clones, and thirteen super clones!"

Sakura held very much the opposite of Lee's beliefs, going agape in awe at the number, 'Just this once I will save him from his sensei's crazed honouring scheme.'

"Lee-san, if you remember we announced this as a team spar, you forgot to add on my amount to the tally."

Lee's eyes widened and Sakura grinned, "So add on one hundred and sixty three normal clones, and nine enhanced clones." She announced with a wink, ignoring Naruto's protests of 'its SUPER clones Sakura-chan!' Lee blinked and then felt a huge smile form when he added up the numbers.

"HAWWW! We succeeded in defeating over five hundred clones, this rival match is mine! Naruto-kun I am leading now by one round in the beginning of our eternal rivalry!"

Naruto sweat dropped, although his pride took a plunge at the claim, "When did we agree to that!? Sakura-chan came in and helped you, it was two on one! "

Sakura chuckled, "You mean two on five hundred and seventy? Naruto, I think we were the ones with the handicap." She laughed when Naruto pouted and whined in his childish manner, but she calmed down and decided to move on.

"Well, shall we make a start Naruto?"

"Sure thing Sakura-chan, when we are done we will challenge Ero-sennin again and make him look like a fool!"

Sakura shook her head at her friends antics and turned to Lee, "Lee-san, what will you do?"

Lee shrugged until he beamed with his nice guy pose, "I will run around this park one hundred times on my hands!"

Sakura almost tripped over dumbfounded at his ridiculous claim, 'I save him from one crazed promise...only for him to throw himself into another crazed promise...hopeless.'

Sakura ignored Lee as he 'ran' off and turned to Naruto.

"What shall we work on Sakura-chan?"

Sakura shrugged, "I don't know...Let's try speeding up the same sized sphere." she suggested, and they began their training.

After several attempts, their persistence was starting to pay off as Naruto was getting better at stabilizing the increased speed for longer before dispersing in his hands, "Sorry Sakura-chan, I cannot keep up with how fast the rasengan is spinning."

Sakura shook her head, "This requires equal work from both of us, nobody is to blame here, Naruto."

Sakura thought for a while and something came to mind, "Naruto, I am going to try something with this next one, ok?" Naruto nodded and formed the sphere again.

Sakura placed her palm over the sphere and began rotating the sphere, but was also pouring more of her chakra into the sphere, causing it to grow to roughly double its size and illuminating a near blinding glow. Naruto's eyes widened and he spoke worryingly.

"Sakura-chan that's too much chakra!" Sakura nodded and reduced the amount she was pouring in. The sphere however became unstable from her change and dispersed, sending a minor shockwave in all directions making the pair lose their footing and stumble on the grass.

"Are you ok Sakura-chan?!" Naruto asked in concern as he got back up.

Sakura nodded and responded, "I'm ok, you?"

Naruto nodded, "You were pouring more of your own chakra into the sphere weren't you Sakura-chan?"

Sakura nodded and then narrowed her eyes in thought, "Ero-sennin said I would be able to help you in stabilizing it as well. While I am helping with the motion and partially in the stability, I am not using much chakra at all. I thought if I added more of my own chakra into the sphere, I would be able to help you more equally in controlling it."

Naruto nodded but Sakura continued, "But if I pour too much of my chakra in the sphere, then it becomes too hard for you to control my chakra, as you aren't used to manipulating other chakra sources like a medic-nin is trained to do." Naruto nodded although he was still a bit confused, Sakura didn't show any annoyance and tried to explain.

"Medic-nin's learn to use other people's chakra when they are healing. It is a technique that we learn to reduce the amount of chakra we use when healing a person if they are not too seriously injured. Since medic-nin's in some cases are required to treat dozens, even hundreds of patients within a day, this technique of reducing the amount of chakra allows us to help even when low on chakra reserves. I am treating the rasengan you are forming as if it is such a patient, that is what is allowing me to make the rasengan rotate, as well as changing its colour to turquoise, since a part of my chakra is also in the sphere."

Naruto nodded and grinned, "I understand now Sakura-chan. So the problem is I cannot work together with your chakra which is present in the rasengan. Originally I was able to handle controlling the chakra because it was a very small amount, but because of that, you are limited in keeping it stable and limited in speed. If you increase the amount of chakra you use, the rasengan fills more with your chakra, making it glow brighter, and granting you more access to controlling the sphere. But the problem is I cannot manipulate your chakra like you can with mine, and the rasengan fails on my end in its formation."

Sakura nodded with a smile, "Hai, but don't beat yourself up about it too much Naruto, it's not exactly something that anybody can do."

"Is there anything that I can do to help Sakura-chan?"

Sakura nodded, "It really isn't much of an exercise, but the first step to using another chakra source is actually being aware of the presence of that chakra. Do you at all feel another chakra presence when you are forming the rasengan?" Naruto shook his head.

"Ok, form another one Naruto." She instructed and Naruto obeyed, as she then started spinning the sphere at a very slow speed.

"Concentrate on the sphere Naruto, does your chakra at all feel anything amiss?" Naruto closed his eyes in concentration. He soon opened them and shook his head muttering a sorry. Sakura then poured more of her chakra into the rasengan, increasing its size slightly.

"How about now, there is now double the amount I was using before." Naruto closed his eyes again, and soon opened again with a sorrowful expression.

Sakura just grinned, "I said not to beat yourself up about it baka." Naruto's sad grin became more genuine. Sakura then reverted her gaze to the spear and poured more in, increasing it the size to a partly deflated soft ball, as it starting glowing a stronger green.

"This is now at four times the amount of chakra I was using from the start." She announced and waited patiently. Naruto closed his eyes and in concentration, then shot them open soon and nodded with a grin.

"I feel a sort of weight against my chakra!" He beamed.

"Good! Now focus on those areas where your chakra feels heavy, by doing that, it will help you with seeing what is going on when I manipulate the rasengan."

Naruto nodded and concentrated as Sakura began making the rasengan spin slightly faster. Naruto narrowed his eyes and then they widened in recognition, "It...it feels like you are pushing my chakra around Sakura-chan."

Sakura nodded with a smile, "Yes, that's right. While unfortunately you do not have the chakra control to manipulate my chakra, you can help me in manipulating yours." Naruto looked up at his friend in confusion.

"Don't treat it more like a bully pushing you around Naruto, treat it like a dance that I am leading in, make your chakra follow my movements."

Naruto blinked but then complied, "So I move my chakra in the direction you are pushing Sakura-chan?"

"Hai! Try moving in the direction I am now."

Naruto did as asked, the result was completely unexpected, when the rasengan suddenly began spinning at unreadable speeds.

"Naruto disperse it now!" Sakura near shouted as she removed her palm. The Rasengan dispersed in a violent teal haze. Naruto was gritting his teeth as his hand was heavily burnt from chakra burns.

"Naruto are you ok?!" Sakura asked in concern taking his hand and healing it.

"I completely forgot that if you moved in the same direction as me, the rasengan would essentially rotate a lot faster, since your chakra was no longer resisting mine. Sorry Naru-"

"Sakura-chan that was awesome! We really made some huge progress!" Sakura chuckled as she continued healing his hand muttering her usual 'Baka'.

Lee was passing by on his hands and shouted to himself 'forty three!' and continued on out of sight. Sakura finished healing and still saw some traces of bruising, and reached into her weapon pouch.

"Hold still." She instructed, as she enwrapped Naruto's hand in a light bandaging, and finished with a pin. "How is that?" she asked, Naruto clenched his hand and opened.

"Its fine, thanks Sakura-chan." Naruto said while eyeing his hand, before dropping it at his side.

"Well I think we should cal-" She couldn't even finish her statement, as Naruto already started forming a rasengan again in his unwounded hand, causing her to chuckle as she placed her palm over the top.

"Baka. But alright you win. Let's work on our co-ordination a bit. I am going to increase and decrease the speed slowly, you are to follow my lead."

Naruto nodded with a smile, "Lead the way, Sakura-chan." Sakura slowly began increasing the speed then kept it at that level for a short while.

Then she increased it more, then suddenly changed and decreased it, "You're doing very good Naruto, do you notice it to?"

Naruto smile widened, "Yeah! The rasengan is no longer dispersing when we change the speed!" Sakura nodded with the smile still across her face, until she suddenly felt a dizzy and the rasengan dispersed.

"Sakura-chan, are you ok?" Naruto voiced in concern.

Sakura grunted in response, "I am just a little exhausted from using so much chakra. Even if I am feeding a little bit of my chakra into it, the rasengan seems to stay stable for longer if it's constantly feeding on the chakra while it's still in the palm. Because I am pouring much more chakra than is necessary to help you visualise what I am doing, I kind of cant keep up with using it for long." Naruto still wasn't convinced that Sakura was ok judging by the concern still on his face.

"Naruto, if I was breathing very heavily and slanted, then you should be worried. I probably only have around just more than a third of my chakra left, that is more than enough for me to summon a common slug and do other jutsu."

Naruto finally nodded, "Alright Sakura-chan. Shall we head back then?" Sakura was about to respond when she was cut off by a loud announcement that came from a slightly strained voice. "Sixty eight!"

"I guess that means we are waiting on Lee-san now." Sakura shrugged, and walked towards the seat and sat down.

Sakura then eyed her weights, "Do they hurt?"

Sakura looked up to see Naruto standing a few feet in front of her with clear interest across his face.

"Not really, when Lee-san gave them to me I only felt the slowness caused from them. Then first day after our spar my arms felt quite numb. Usually now like during that spar we did earlier, my arms just feel a bit heavy, which is to be expected. When I use them on my legs though, you can really feel the weight in each step...it amazes me Lee-san can do so much with a very heavy weight on both his arms and legs."

Naruto nodded although the thought couldn't help but be crossed.

'Sakura-chan does speak highly of Fuzzy Brows...' Speaking of the devil, said spandex wearer came by again and shouted 'Seventy one!' through gritted teeth.

"Have you felt any results yet Sakura-chan?" Sakura narrowed her eyes in thought and responded.

"I do, not really that much though considering it's been a very little amount of time. When I unlock them before going to sleep, my arms and legs do feel amazingly light, but that could just be since I am getting used to the strain of the extra load."

Naruto nodded in understanding, but raised an eyebrow when Sakura found the ground interesting, "Naruto umm..." Naruto focused his neutral gaze on Sakura, wondering why she suddenly was so nervous.

'Just apologise.' She mused, but felt unbelievably firm resistance.

"D-Do you remember the promise you made me?"

Naruto's eyes widened but he gave a smile which she didn't see, "Yes Sakura-chan, I remember, and don't worry, I never go back on my pr-"

"Naruto...I am not questioning your nindo, I know you are good for your word...but can you do something for me about that promise?" Sakura finally tore her eyes off the ground and looked into his eyes.

'Your promise means so much to me, but it is not right...I am fixing this right now.'

"Instead of bringing Sasuke-kun back yourself, can we bring Sasuke-kun back...together?" Naruto blinked while mouthing a 'huh?' which made Sakura form a sad smile and looked away as if she lost strength.

"Lee-san was right in what he said. You are always putting your life in danger to help others, your promise to me was no acceptation....in fact if I read it right in your medical report, your promise to me would have costed you your life if it wasn't for the Kyuubi." Naruto's sudden gasp made her face twitch, but she tried to hold it in.

"Sakura-chan that wasn't your faul-"

"Naruto..." Sakura looked back to meet his soft gaze, ignoring the small tear running down her left cheek that escaped, as her eyes burned in determination.

"Please, let's bring Sasuke-kun back together. I know he is probably more important to you than he is to me, but that does not matter. We are teammates, but more importantly we are friends...I want to help you in return for all the times you have been there to help and support me."

Naruto almost winced at how much pain was held in her slightly trembled voice, but he gave Sakura a very large genuine smile, "Sakura-chan, you already have helped me in more ways than you can imagine."

Sakura looked wide eyed at Naruto, "I...have?"

Naruto nodded the smile still present, "You kidding?! This entire mission you have helped me since day one. First you have healed me when I got hurt, then you reunited me with my long lost ramen-" Sakura chuckled as a second tear rolled down, but Naruto continued although he had a slight flush across his cheeks. "-The most important thing you have done for me is accept me for who I am, which you have no idea how much that really means to me Sakura-chan, really, it does!"

Naruto concluded with a smile. Returning to her original request, he calmed himself and talked more normally, "There is no need to point the finger as to who he is more important to Sakura-chan...he is important to both of us." Sakura nodded as he continued.

"Sasuke is our teammate as well but also our friend...so it's only right that we bring him back together too."

"...Thank you, Naruto" Sakura said softly, rubbing her eyes clear of her tears, only more fell as she scrutinised herself, 'Why didn't I apologise!?!'

"You always cry so easily Sakura-chan, you shouldn't worry so much." Sakura snickered after meeting his warming grin again, feeling calmed from it.

"Baka! I will gladly worry about my friend's safety if I want to!"

Naruto waved his hands in his defence, "Hai Hai, sorry I said anything!"

Sakura giggled at his antics but shook her head, 'He always could cheer me up.'

"Thanks baka."

"93!" Lee strained out, leaving a trail of sweat behind him as he continued.

Growing annoyed at the interruption, he turned and watched the miniature Gai continue, but then let out a chuckle Sakura knew so well. Sakura sent a questioning gaze his way, but soon her eyes narrowed in suspicion when she recognised 'that' smirk clear on his face. The blonds traditional smirk that was full of mischief. She traced where he was looking at and noticed he was looking at the 'track' Lee had used numerous times during his run.

"Naruto...don't you dare!" She hissed, although the fact that her threat sounded literally full of amusement, made it translate to 'go for it Naruto!' in Naruto's ears.

Naruto then turned his smirk towards Sakura, "I am going to need your help Sakura-chan, if you have enough chakra that is."

Shikamaru allowed a yawn to escape once the final report was looked at, "So tiring, at least we now have a few solid leads to who we might be up against."

He said to the older two shinobi, looking at the seven profiles they had concluded had the highest chances of facing.

"Phew, I think after that, this requires some time for 'research'." Jiraiya said while wiping the 'sweat' or lack of from his forehead.

"..."

The other two looked over to Kakashi to see him entrenched in his new book, which made the Nara form a nasty smirk, "I heard the main character has some secret, apparently he-"

"SPOILERS!!!" Kakashi cried and covered his ears until he just realised something.

"...You haven't read it yet have you Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru snorted, "I don't read garbage."

Jiraiya felt insulted at the claim and glared, "Like your old enough to understand."

Shikamaru shrugged, "No, I just find that sort of thing too troublesome and dangerous around women."

The two turned their heads towards the door when they heard the bell ring, and Shikamaru looked at the clock. "Roughly an hour has passed, hopefully they didn't destroy that park." Shikamaru and Jiraiya went agape at the sight they saw though.

Lee came in...Walking on his hands?

"Umm, Lee what are you doing?" Shikamaru asked in confusion. Lee didn't respond, in fact it was like he didn't even know he was there, his heavy breathing though indicated he had been doing that type of 'walk' for a while.

"Almost....there!" Lee staggered through his gasps for air.

Then walked in two very widely grinning teammates, which hit the others in understanding straight away, it was literally like catching somebody's hand in the cookie jar. It even stood out more when Shikamaru noticed Sakura's hands were being held in a seal.

"He is in a genjutsu isn't he?" Shikamaru said flatly.

"One hundred!!" Lee shouted out loud and fell to the ground breathing heavily. Then his eyes widened when the genjutsu was lifted as Sakura rubbed the sweat off her forehead.

"Wha-where..." He then caught sight of the two very guilty looking shinobi.

"N-No...THAT WAS VERY HIP NARUTO-KUN! THAT'S WHAT I WOULD EXPECT FROM MY ETERNAL RIVAL!" Lee shouted back on his feet with surprisingly full energy.

'It was Sakura that put you in the genjutsu...you idiot!' Shikamaru inwardly stated, while his sweat dropped.

"Did you say something Gai....oh its Lee-kun." Kakashi said in faux surprise, then returned to his reading. Sakura was already in full laughter along with Naruto. Jiraiya's eyes focused on the laughing pair.

'Last time I checked she was the serious one in the team...looks like all this time she is spending with the gaki is beginning to take its toll...likewise in a way back on Naruto...hehe how cute.'

Once the joke had finally calmed down, they settled down for Shikamaru and Kakashi's report, while Jiraiya excused himself, smoothly dodging explaining what he was doing, in fear of receiving a raging fist.

Kakashi began, "Well we have finally finished going through all the reports." While Kakashi still continued, Shikamaru used his shadow from his chair to pass one profile to each of them, since it was too much effort to get up.

"These are a few of the ANBU we believe would have the highest chance of survival based upon their record. While we are not certain these are right, it is better than not having something to prepare for. Shikamaru if you do not find it too troublesome can you explain our next course of action?" Shikamaru sighed and decided to talk while sitting.

"We are going to go after these ANBU. While we have no idea of their number, there is extremely little chance of there being no more than seven, maybe eight members. Leaving Wave would just cause trouble for the population here when they come searching here again for Naruto. We also have the problem of trust in the ANBU ranks ruling out Konoha as a full back point. The issue with sitting and waiting though, is that they have practically all the time in the world to prepare, and they may even set up another enemy shinobi with false information directing them to Wave...there are too many issues with leaving these guys alone."

Shikamaru waited for any questions, which Sakura gladly took, "How exactly are we going to find their location?"

Kakashi made his U shaped eye smile and answered, "You seem to forget my summoning contract Sakura."

Sakura's eyes widened, but settled, "N-No I haven't forgotten that Kakashi-sensei, but we do not have anything that belonged in their possession."

"Oh yes we do." Shikamaru said proudly, getting the others to raise their eyebrows in question, while Kakashi just sat there smugly.

Shikamaru then opened up his sealing scroll and unsealed one of the slots. When the smoke cleared, the broken mask that belonged to Araiki was laying flat on top of the opened scroll.

"While the other's mask was completely destroyed, this one's was still intact when I found it." Lee nodded, remembering how the mask cracked but didn't break during his fight.

"The only problem is it has been days since the fight, meaning the nin-dogs will have to search the area to pick up some sort of trail, assuming they have been observing us."

"Considering one of them has the byakugan, they could be anywhere from five, maybe even ten kilometres away and they would be able to monitor us, so chances are, they already know reinforcements have arrived." Kakashi's statement got the group to stiffen at attention, since simply walking out in the open could mean they are being watched.

Shikamaru continued, "Basically it means it will take a while for the nin-dogs to find any scent, which gives us time to prepare ourselves. When a scent has been found the dogs will venture ahead until they reach their destination, then they will return to us and report. We will then move out the next day."

Shikamaru's yawn interrupted himself, "If there aren't any more questions, I am going to go watch the afternoon clouds. I suggest you all take your time in reading over the profiles we found between now and then."

"So it seems that Itachi wasn't the only one that caught on quick, it must be something in the genes then." Ronan said in amusement, watching his new pupil successfully trapping his sparing ANBU in a genjutsu through doujutsu.

The arrogant smirk on Sasuke's face was clear to the world, 'With this, I will never fall victim to a genjutsu again.' Sasuke's eyes widened when he felt the chakra fall upon him, telling him that a low level genjutsu had been placed. Sasuke didn't even flinch when he reached for his sword, and deflected several hazy objects that were making a course towards him, soon revealing they were Kunai's.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed when the ANBU he had trapped had broken free and casted a genjutsu that was creating numerous illusions of him surrounding Sasuke. Sasuke's sharingan practically highlighted the illusions that were created through chakra, revealing a single non glowing ANBU. Sasuke charged straight at the figure preparing a punch, he gritted his teeth though when his fist phased through his supposed mark.

"It seems you still have problems with multilayered genjutsu, we will work on that first before its even worth demonstrating how to alter then reverse a genjutsu back on the caster." Sasuke remained silent but nodded firmly.

"Sasuke-kun is learning very quickly how to perform genjutsu from doujutsu isn't he Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said from their spectator's spot up in the trees outside the cavern.

Orochimaru's ever present smirk remained, "The sharingan indeed makes learning new jutsu very child's play, it helps being very talented as well which Sasuke-kun continues to demonstrate. By combining the talent with the sharingan makes it the ultimate learning tool for a shinobi." Orochimaru almost sang in a trance.

Araiki inwardly snickered at Orochimaru's words, then returned to the chamber as Ronan began explaining to Sasuke about different layers of genjutsu. Araiki would most likely never have to even spare a thought to such nonsense, since the byakugan sees through chakra, essentially meaning that practically there was no sort of genjutsu that could be used against him. Thomas was down by the river which was not far from the rest of the ANBU. Thomas went down there t o check on Wani, but only after a brief confirmation that Wani had made a full recovery, did he just sit there and do nothing.

He then suddenly spoke above a whisper to nobody in particular, "How long have you been following me for?"

"Around half an hour." Said the emotionless voice that belonged to a young man.

Thomas put on his fake smile and laughed, "Well, you must be quite the assassin, if you were able to even sneak by Orochimaru and Ronan."

"I do my best." Said a clearly forced cheerful chirp.

The boy then revealed himself from the surrounding forest. The boy was not wearing any mask to cover his teen face. He had short black hair, and was wearing an entire outfit in black. The unique feature about the boys clothing was he wore a very short shirt, exposing his muscles for everybody to see.

Strapped to the boy's right shoulder, was a small sword that usually belonged to an assassin. Finally strapped to his side was a brush, with a scroll on the other side.

The boy addressed Thomas flatly, "What do you have to report."

"Jinkuriki is still alive, Orochimaru has formed a temporary allegiance with Ronan to train Uchiha Sasuke."

"Very well...Your orders remain the same, you are to terminate the jinkuriki if the opportunity arises, as well as anyone that gets in your way. It is vital that the Akatsuki is stopped from achieving their plans...You are also being informed that unless the situation calls for it, this will be your last report for the month. It seems they are growing suspicious of our plans."

"I was afraid that would happen when the initial attempt failed, but no matter. I will do everything in my power to ensure Danzou-sama's wishes are met."